Richard Nixon’s great achievement of bringing in Peking from the cold, and Reagan’s great achievement of ending the Cold War, are history.

Bolshevism may be dead, but Russian nationalism, awakened by NATO’s quick march to Russia’s ancient frontiers, is alive and well.

Moscow appears to have given up on the West and accepted that its hopes for better times with President Donald Trump are not to be.

U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley is berating Russia for secretly trading with North Korea in violation of U.N. sanctions, saying, “Lying, cheating, and rogue behavior have become the new norm of the Russian culture.”

Cold wars don’t get much colder than defaming another country’s culture as morally debased.

The U.S. has also signaled that it may start supplying naval and anti-aircraft weaponry to Ukraine, as Russia is being warned to cease its inspections of ships passing from the Black Sea through the Kerch Strait into the Sea of Azov.

The three-mile-wide strait lies between Crimea and Kerch Peninsula. In Russia’s eyes, both banks of the strait are Russian national territory.

With U.S. backing, Ukraine has decided to build a naval base on the Sea of Azov to “create conditions for rebuffing the aggressive actions of the Russian Federation in this region.”

Kiev has several patrol boats in the Sea of Azov, with a few more to be transferred there in coming months. Russia’s navy could sink those boats and wipe out that base in minutes.

Are we going to send our Navy across the Black Sea to protect Ukraine’s naval rights inside a sea that has been as historically Russian as the Chesapeake Bay is historically American?

Poland this week invited the U.S. to establish a major base on its soil, for which the Poles will pay $2 billion, to be called “Fort Trump.”

Trump seemed to like the idea, and the name.

Yet the Bush II decision to install a missile defense system in Poland brought a Kremlin counter-move: the installation of nuclear-capable Iskander cruise missiles in Kaliningrad, the former German territory on Poland’s northern border annexed by Stalin at the end of World War II.

In the Balkans, over Russian protests, the U.S. is moving to bring Macedonia into NATO. But before Macedonia can join, half of its voters have to come out on September 30 to approve a change in the nation’s name to North Macedonia. This is to mollify Greece, which claims the birthplace of Alexander the Great as it own.

Where are we going with all this?

With U.S. warships making regular visits into the Eastern Baltic and Black Sea, the possibility of a new base in Poland, and growing lethal aid to Ukraine to fight pro-Russian rebels in the Donbass and the Russian navy on the Sea of Azov, are we not crowding the Russians a bit?

When Georgia, believing it could kick Russian peacekeepers out and re-annex its seceded province of South Ossetia, attacked in August 2008, the Russian army came crashing in and ran the Georgians out in 48 hours.

George W. Bush wisely decided not to issue an ultimatum or send troops. He ignored the hawks in his own party who had helped goad him into the great debacle of his presidency: Iraq.

So what exactly is the U.S. grand strategy with regard to Russia?

What might be called the McCain wing of the Republican Party has sought to bring Ukraine and Georgia into NATO, which would make the containment of Russia America’s policy in perpetuity.

Are the American people aware of the costs and risks inherent in such a policy? What are the prospects of Russia yielding always to U.S. demands? And are we not today stretched awfully thin?

Our share of the global economy is much shrunk from Reagan’s time. Our deficit is approaching $1 trillion. Our debt is surging toward 100 percent of GDP. Entitlements are consuming our national wealth.

We are committed to containing the two other greatest powers, Russia and China. We are tied down militarily in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen, with the War Party beating the drums for another larger war with Iran. And we are sanctioning adversaries and allies for not following our leadership of the West and the world.

In looking at America’s global commitments, greatly expanded since our Cold War victory, one word comes to mind: unsustainable.

Patrick J. Buchanan is the author of a new book, Nixon’s White House Wars: The Battles That Made and Broke a President and Divided America Forever. To find out more about Patrick Buchanan and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators website at www.creators.com.

“Entitlements are consuming our national wealth.” This is not true. The Pentagon and congress are stealing and consuming the citizens’ wealth, not entitlements. Entitlements are being wiped out instead, to pay the Pentagon’s corrupt machine overtime and gut the safety net support for all USA citizens (except the 1% who are destroying the USA).

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September 24, 2018 15:08

Guest

Jizmo Onyabhuti

It is all part of a whole. Since the establishment of the FED, the “government” has been co-opted for a new purpose; that being to waste the peoples prosperity in every way possible. This is how they enslave an entire people and gain total control through debt at every level. You aren’t wrong. It’s just that partisanship disallows the seeing of the whole picture. Half-way there is better than no way there. Once you see who is behind this, you will never be able to un-see it.

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September 25, 2018 17:42

Guest

Cudwieser

Who won the Cold War? Was that war ever over?

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September 24, 2018 21:11

Guest

Jizmo Onyabhuti

Zionist/Communists won. The evidence is all around you, like leaves in autumn. You just have to see.

A Russian/American alliance would make America great again. America & Russia have 90% of the worlds nuclear weapons to begin with plus vast military capabilities of all kinds. The U.S. would not need to append Trillions of $’s on weapons. America would control the western hemisphere and Russia the Eurasian continent. Russia stretches 6,000 miles across Eurasia and is half of Europe. Trump , make a deal with Putin and America becomes great again. Together the 2 countries could wipe out terrorism.

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September 25, 2018 03:48

Guest

A.F.

When Russia downed MH17, it was an act of terrorism

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September 25, 2018 13:12

Guest

Jane Karlsson

Russia did not down MH17. What you are doing is an act of terrorism. It won’t work here on The Duran.

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September 25, 2018 14:07

Guest

Jizmo Onyabhuti

Thank you! A.F. has the same attitude that the Left has in the Kavanaugh case. Convict without evidence.

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September 25, 2018 17:47

Guest

Jizmo Onyabhuti

Bingo! This is the Zionist’s greatest fear. If the USA and Russia ever unite, it is game over for them. The rightful heirs would be in control of the earth. It’s why we pray: Thy Kingdom come; Thy will be done; On Earth as it is in Heaven. That’s pretty good for a guy who spent his life being non-religious. Identity is everything. Find out who you (Europeans) truly are.

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September 25, 2018 17:46

Guest

Jizmo Onyabhuti

It appears that our Zionist Overlords are going to push us into another fratricidal war. Will the white population, through our unwillingness to see what is right before our eyes, allow itself to be manipulated yet again so that we sacrifice what remains of our people on the altar of power and money? Our masters will do the works of their father. Wake up America!!!